NASA rockets up a telescope to solve mysteries of the Sun’s corona

A gallery from NASA's recent mission to explore the Sun's hottest region.

Two payloads, Hi-C (High Resolution Coronal Imager) and Sumi, standing upright prior to their launch from White Sands. Hi-C was tasked with capturing images of the Sun's corona to find out what allows it to get so hot.

NASA

Two payloads, Hi-C (High Resolution Coronal Imager) and Sumi, standing upright prior to their launch from White Sands. Hi-C was tasked with capturing images of the Sun's corona to find out what allows it to get so hot.

NASA

The Hi-C telescope at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The primary mirror, 9.5 inches in diameter, is front and center. Scientists guessed that the extreme temperatures in the Sun's corona had to do with unusual magnetic activity, but they lacked visual confirmation. They also suspect the corona is the source of solar flares, so understanding how it heats up would explain some aspects of space weather.

NASA

The rocket flew for 10 minutes in total, allowing its payload to capture 165 images of the Sun's corona. According to NASA, the telescope's could perform the equivalent of resolving a dime from 10 miles away.

NASA

The Hi-C rocket and telescope (total weight of 464 pounds and measureing 10 feet long) were shot into the air on July 11. The rocket reached Mach 7 and altitudes of 264 kilometers.

NASA

A full picture of the surface of the Sun and the activity of its corona.

NASA

Another full shot of the Sun, this time with its activity in the ultraviolet range transposed to blue colors.

NASA

Images from the Hi-C at its full resolving power show magnetic "braids" of activity that twist and move gas around to generate energy and raise the temperature of the corona.

NASA

An image from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly at the Solar Dynamics Observatory, which has a more distant perspective than the Hi-C did in flight.

NASA

An amalgamation of images from the active solar region: "a portion of a filament channel (upper center/right), the braided ensemble (left, second from top), an example of magnetic recognition and flaring (left, third from top), and fine stranded loops (left, bottom)." Scientists were looking for magnetic disturbances in the Sun's corona (atmosphere), which they suspected are the reason the corona is so much hotter than the surface of the Sun (millions of degrees Kelvin, compared to about 5,000K on the surface).

NASA

The braids appeared to be flowing outward and unwinding.

NASA

The Hi-C payload and subsystems after parachuting into the desert.

NASA

A team of scientists and the payload after its flight.

NASA

Scientists and the SUMI (Solar Ultraviolet Magnetograph Investigation) payload in the desert, which flew on July 5.

I apologize in advance for my nit pickery, but when i read the subtitle's "explore the Sun's hottest region", I couldn't shake the thought that "the corona isn't the hottest region! the core is! that's where the larger elements are broken down! The corona is the opposite - the coolest part!"

I realize it means surface region... but its hard to think of the sun like that. Stupid astronomy class teaching me about convection.

I apologize in advance for my nit pickery, but when i read the subtitle's "explore the Sun's hottest region", I couldn't shake the thought that "the corona isn't the hottest region! the core is! that's where the larger elements are broken down! The corona is the opposite - the coolest part!"

I realize it means surface region...

No, they mean the corona, which at 1-2 million K is not the coolest part of the sun by a long shot. The surface temp is about 6000 K.

You're correct that the core would be the hottest, at an estimated 27 million K, but of the parts we can directly measure, the corona is by far the hottest.

Which is why coronal heating is a mystery that this probe was designed to help solve.

Do keep in mind though that temperature is a measure of average kinetic energy in a collection of particles following a particular distribution, not the total energy in the collection. The corona is exceedingly hot, but also extremely rarefied compared to the cooler but much denser surface. There's no thermodynamical issue with the corona. The mystery is just what accelerates the particles in it so much.

Convection plays a role in the sun but only within certain regions. The large-scale structure of the sun is highly stratified by element density with essentially no mixing between.

No, they mean the corona, which at 1-2 million K is not the coolest part of the sun by a long shot. The surface temp is about 6000 K.

You're correct that the core would be the hottest, at an estimated 27 million K, but of the parts we can directly measure, the corona is by far the hottest.

Aha! Thank you for the correction! That class was some years ago. I was definitely confusing "surface" with "corona" - all I remembered was that the corona was the outermost layer. Having now glanced at wikipedia (which I should have done beforehand), clearly it's not the surface.

Also, thanks for going a little into what the issue/mystery here really is. I basically went "ooo, pretty pictures" but didn't have a clue what the mystery really was.

For those interested in why this looks like better engineered version of an amateur rocket (but not an Atlas class launch vehicle), it's because it's suborbital.

"NASA's suborbital sounding rockets provide low-cost means to conduct space science and studies of Earth's upper atmosphere. In addition, they have proven to be a valuable test bed for new technologies for future satellites or probes to other planets. "

However, it would be nice if for these articles the text could be to the side of the photos rather than under it. I have a 30" monitor and even with that the vertical space is far more precious than the horizontal. Please consider widening the column.